“Mortgage and real estate professionals should always keep top of mind that owning a home remains the most reliable way for American families to build wealth and is often financially better than renting,” said Maria Vergara, the President of NAHREP Consulting Services. “But access to homeownership is not equal. Hispanic and black households still have lower homeownership rates than non-Hispanic white households. The gap is getting narrower, but still needs to be addressed. Many factors contribute to this disparity and understanding their impacts can be difficult. There is new research from the Urban Institute and Sloan Foundation’s Administrative Data Research Facility that shows a considerable gap in homeownership rates between neighborhoods with low levels of limited English proficient (LEP) residents and those with higher levels of LEP residents.”

“The report said, among other things, ‘If we control for other factors that influence homeownership (e.g., income, age, and race), neighborhoods with the highest concentrations of LEP residents have homeownership rates 5 percentage points lower than rates in neighborhoods with the median concentration of LEP residents. Limited English proficiency has a considerable impact on homeownership rates.’ This research establishes that it is a barrier on top of other, more researched barriers. This finding suggests that we might expand homeownership by better serving the LEP community.”

NAHREP Consulting Services can assist in bridging the gap to reach the LEP community with such services including, Translation and Cultural Adaptation, Translation Services, Cultural Competency Training and Hispanic Marketing Fundamentals.